Look around you right now, and you’ll probably see some sort of plastic, whether it’s a water bottle on your desk or someone carrying a plastic bag down the street.
We rely on plastic to get our shopping home, protect our fruit from bruising, or keep our takeaway coffee warm. However, it’s hugely damaging to the environment.
A large amount of plastic ends up in our oceans, affecting sealife and polluting the water.
There have been many initiatives to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean, including the 5p bag charge here in the UK.
9 in 10 people in the UK now bring their own reusable bags when shopping, and some sources have said there’s been an 85% reduction in plastic bag usage.
Companies are also starting to come round to the idea, with chains like Wetherspoon’s removing plastic straws from their pubs. Plastic straws are dangerous to marine life, and can get stuck in the windpipes of turtles or other animals.
Microbeads have additionally been banned from all cosmetics in the UK, with the ban going into full force earlier this year. These are the little scrubby bits in washes and soaps which may seem harmless, but actually end up being eaten the fish we then eat and clog up our water supply.
The exact amount of plastic in our oceans is hard to quantify, because you have the tiny particles like microbeads to incorporate into the total.
Some plastic also just washes up on beaches rather than being in the ocean. This is still bad for the environment, but affects the overall amount.
As well as this, the density of a certain plastics (PET) is heavier than water, so items sink to the sea floor. This is extremely deep and hard for researchers to collect a meaningful sample as part of their study.
What scientists do know, though, is that every year about 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans.
In 2025, the annual input is estimated to be about twice that.
So, even if we started from no plastic in the oceans in 2015 when this study was done, by 2025 there could potentially be over 160 million metric tons of plastic in the seas.
Even floating on the surface of the oceans right now, there’s up to 245,000 metric tons of plastic.
Facts about plastic consumption
- Annually, around 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide.
- More than one million bags are used every minute.
- A plastic bag has an average ‘working life’ of 15 minutes.
- Over the last ten years, we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.
- 14% of all litter comes from beverage containers. When caps and labels are considered, the number is higher.
Source: Plastic Oceans
The best way to avoid using these plastics is to simply stop buying overpackaged products. Items like this plastic covered coconut, or this cauliflower packaged as a steak don’t need to be bought. Simply go to the fresh produce aisle and stick the free-range veg in your basket.
Also, re-use your plastics whenever you can, and if you don’t already recycle, speak with your local council to work out the best way to dispose of your plastics without them getting dumped in the sea.
The turtles will thank you for it.
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